Fox News Dominion case: Rupert Murdoch son drops lawsuit against news site as Smartmatic eyes trial
Rupert Murdoch, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and other big names have all avoided being called to testify over 2020 election lies
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Your support makes all the difference.Rupert Murdoch's son has suddenly dropped his lawsuit against Australian news site Crikey days after Fox News agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems a landmark settlement.
Lachlan Murdoch sued Crikey for defamation last August over a column titled: “Trump is a confirmed unhinged traitor. And Murdoch is his unindicted co-conspirator.”
The suit was dropped on Friday, citing Fox News $787m settlement with Dominion over lies about the 2020 presidential election.
“Crikey has tried to introduce thousands of pages of documents from a defamation case in another jurisdiction, which has now settled,” the statement from Lachlan Murdoch’s legal team said.
“Mr Murdoch remains confident that the court would ultimately find in his favor, however he does not wish to further enable Crikey’s use of the court to litigate a case from another jurisdiction that has already been settled and facilitate a marketing campaign designed to attract subscribers and boost their profits.”
Media pundits are now speculating over the possible fallout from the defamation settlement, with Puck founder Dylan Byers sparking a Twitter frenzy with a column suggesting that Rupert Murdoch could even axe some of his hosts in response to the case.
The Independent has requested comment from Fox News addressing the speculation but there was no immediate change in the network’s programming schedule as of Thursday.
On Tuesday, Fox News reached a settlement with Dominion Voting Systems in its defamation lawsuit moments before opening arguments were about to get under way at trial.
Dominion sued Fox News for defamation, alleging that the network gave a platform to and failed to challenge conspiracy theorists that suggested Dominion was engaged in voter fraud during the 2020 election.
Those conspiracies reportedly damaged Dominion’s business and resulted in employees receiving threats from angry Fox News viewers.
In a last-minute deal, Fox News agreed to pay Dominion $787.5m to put the issue to bed.
Fox News has other legal troubles brewing with Smartmatic revealing what it will take for it to also settle its case against the network.
The voting technology company’s lawyer said on Thursday it won’t accept any settlement smaller than the same $787m payout and will demand a “full retraction” and “apology” from the network.
Fox News finally covers the Dominion trial, fails to mention how much they’re paying to make it go away
Dominion v Fox News: The people and networks still being sued by voting company over election lies
How the almost-trial of Dominion v Fox exploded into a Succession-worthy finale- Don’t be disappointed by the Fox News vs Dominion outcome – this is just the start
Murdoch’s mega Fox payout shows there’s one thing you can’t afford to mess with…
The Independent’s Sean O’Grady writes:
“The truth matters. Lies have consequences”. The lawyer for Dominion Voting Systems put it better than any of Rupert Murdoch’s mercenary army of journalists ever would; or, indeed ever be permitted attempt to do so (the sensational story doesn’t figure much on his channels or in his titles). And it is about time that someone, somewhere, decided “enough already with the fake news”.
Without wishing to come over as sanctimonious – we journalists are all of us flawed – the humiliation of Fox News at the hands of Dominion, a hitherto obscure election machinery company, is a victory for truth.
It’s not as simple as that – because no defamation case of this magnitude can be – but the world is now just a little better off, a little safer, a little more protected from the abuse of media power than it was before Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News decided to cave in to Dominion.
The Fox payout shows there’s one thing you can’t afford to mess with…
The victory is hardly going to transform our devalued political culture
Watch: Jake Tapper can’t keep a straight face
CNN anchor laughs as he reports on $787.5m Fox News and Dominion settlement
A CNN anchor laughed as he reported that Fox News paid a $787.5m (£633m) settlement to Dominion Voting Systems on Tuesday, 18 April. The voting machine manufacturer accused the network of airing false claims that its machines were used to rig the US presidential election in 2020 in favour of Joe Biden over Donald Trump. Footage shows Jake Tapper chuckling as he announced news of the settlement. “I’m sorry this is going to be difficult to say with a straight face,” the anchor said through laughter. Sign up for our newsletters.
Trump’s election lies cost Fox $787m – will they also cost him the White House in 2024?
The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg writes:
For a good portion of the network’s quarter-century on the air, Fox News went by the mantra of “we report, you decide”.
But after the network wholeheartedly embraced Donald Trump in 2016, the reporting became optional because their viewers had already decided.
They decided to believe whatever Trump told them. And when they heard something that contradicted that, they looked elsewhere for more comforting lies.
Two years later, Fox’s audience has remained loyal to Trump, but the twice-impeached ex-president’s lies are still exacting a cost.
Some of that cost may yet to be extracted from Fox’s bottom line.
Another voting machine manufacturer, Smartmatic, still has a multi-billion dollar lawsuit pending against Fox for many of the same lies that pushed Rupert Murdoch and his organisation to offer more than three-quarters of a billion dollars to get Dominion to drop their case.
But it may be Mr Trump who ultimately pays the highest price.
Trump’s election lies cost Fox $787m – will they also cost him 2024?
The truth-averse right-wing network has been punished for its greed and fear. But the ex-president could be set to pay an even higher price
Trump remains silent on Fox’s Dominion lawsuit settlement
Former president Donald Trump’s social media output in the hours since Fox News reached a $787m settlement with Dominion Voting Systems has included numerous posts promoting a series of digital trading cards he is selling, attacks on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and bizarre complaints about Elon Musk and alleged censorship on Twitter (where Mr Trump’s account has gone unused since it was restored earlier this year).
But Mr Trump has not weighed in on Fox’s decision to offer more than three-quarters of a billion dollars to Dominion rather than allow a Delaware jury to determine how much the right-wing network should pay for broadcasting repeated lies about the company’s products rather than report the truth because it was upsetting their audience.
Andrew Feinberg reports.
Trump remains silent on Fox’s Dominion lawsuit settlement
Mr Trump previously called on Fox to continue lying about the 2020 election
Stephen Colbert shares frustration at Fox-Dominion settlement: ‘Damn it! I want my trial!’
Stephen Colbert could barely contain his laughter as he discussed the news that Fox News has settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion for $787.5m.
“Damnit! I want my trial! I want it!” he shouted. “I wanted to see Rupert Murdoch put his hand on the Bible and burst into flames.
“I guess it’s satisfying for Dominion that Rup-y had to fork over a pile of cash, but that does nothing for our democracy.”
Isobel Lewis has the full story.
Stephen Colbert shares frustration at Fox-Dominion settlement
‘I wanted to see Rupert Murdoch put his hand on the Bible and burst into flames!’ late-night host joked
Fox News won’t apologise on air for false election claims under $787m Dominion settlement
Despite the $787.5m settlement, there will be no retractions or on-air apologies on Fox, a source with knowledge of the agreement told The Independent.
Josh Marcus has the details.
Fox News won’t apologise on air under $787m Dominion settlement
Fox News media analyst admitted network broadcast ‘conspiracy theories’
Fox Dominion payout becomes largest media settlement in history
The settlement between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems has become the largest publicly known payout ever struck by an American media company.
Fox Corp and Fox News on Tuesday settled a defamation lawsuit slapped against it by Dominion by agreeing to pay $787.5m to the voting equipment company.
Sweta Sharma has the full story.
Fox Dominion payout becomes largest media settlement in history
Payout is 10 times Dominion’s valuation in 2018
Fox News finally covers the Dominion trial, fails to mention how much they’re paying to make it go away
Fox News has had very little to say about Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6bn defamation lawsuit for nearly the entirety of its existence, but finally deemed the story worth covering on Tuesday when it announced the parties had settled.
In Fox News’ story — which comes in at 256 words, approximately 70 of which are a block quote from a Fox spokesman— we do not learn why the company was sued, just that it was broadly sued for defamation. We also do not learn how much it cost the network to make the trial go away.
(It was $787.5m, in case you missed it.)
Graig Graziosi has the story.
Fox News finally covers the Dominion trial, and it is embarrassing
The settlement robs the public of any further revelations about Fox News’ impact on democracy
Don’t be disappointed by the Fox News vs Dominion outcome – this is just the start
Noah Berlatsky writes for The Independent:
To the general disappointment of progressive observers, Fox settled its lawsuit with Dominion voting systems just before the trial’s opening arguments were slated to begin.
I, along with plenty of others, had been hoping for a full trial. We wanted to see Fox anchors like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity testify in open court under oath that they had lied to their viewers about the election, insisting that the vote was rigged against Donald Trump when they knew it was not.
Fox was desperate to avoid that, and with a $787.5 million settlement – the biggest libel payout in American history – they did.
A long trial underlining the perfidy and recklessness of right-wing media would have been a healthy outcome for democracy, and could have even undermined Fox’s reputation with some of its fanbase.
But it’s important to acknowledge that the lawsuit does provide some accountability, and, just as important, it makes future coup attempts or assaults on democracy more difficult. We know from discovery that Fox carefully weighed incentives and financial consequences before pushing election lies. This payout changes those incentives for the future. That’s a good thing.
Don’t be disappointed by the Fox v Dominion outcome – this is just the start | Voices
It’s important to acknowledge that the lawsuit provides some accountability
The Dominion lawsuit is far from Fox News’s only legal headache
Fox News declared it was “pleased” to have paid out $787.5m to Dominion Voting Systems and avoided a grueling six-week courtroom examination of its shoddy journalistic practices.
Yet the measured celebration in Fox’s statement after paying out the second largest defamation award in US history may be short-lived.
However, the thousands of emails, texts and private documents unearthed during Dominion’s discovery process have pried open Fox’s internal decision-making process, and the willingness of its anchors and executives to lie for the sake of ratings, like never before.
Fox News has settled with Dominion, but the network has many other legal problems
Fox News still faces a deluge of litigation relating to its 2020 election lies from Smartmatic, former producer Abby Grossberg and its own shareholders.
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